


The Mother's Job

by genericfanatic



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen, but with heart so, i feel like that fits, mother's day fic, super inaccurate to everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-10-31 22:56:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10909167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genericfanatic/pseuds/genericfanatic
Summary: In order to get into CIA Headquarters, Eliot must call in his #1 contact at the CIA: His mother.





	The Mother's Job

**Author's Note:**

> like the tags said, super inaccurate, I just wanted a character vaguely like my mom for a Mother's Day gift for her. My mother is not QUITE like Mrs. Spencer (she's not a data analyst for the CIA for one) but she is super cool, and I thought I'd take the lack of any description of Eliot's mom to build on that.

“We can’t, its impossible,” 

“Oh come on,” Parker said, lounging, “Nothing’s really impossible.”

“I am scared by the idea that you actually mean that,” Hardison said, pacing back and forth.

Parker sighs, “Please, this is always the way it is. We have a problem, it looks impossible, and then we solve it!”

“This isn’t like one of our normal missions, Parker.” Hardison frowned at her, “I can hack just about anything, but not space/time.”

“You’re looking at this all wrong,” Parker said, “The solution is SO SIMPLE. We have a little girl who needs a heart, and we have a heart for her! The work practically does itself.”

Hardison sighed. Technically, yes, they had found a heart for this girl, but due to her rare condition, she had been taken off the transplant list, and the medical board had moved the heart elsewhere, most likely to be thrown away, given that it was also a rare heart. The doctor who had the heart and the doctor who had the little girl were both willing to help under the table….but there was the small matter of them being across the country from one another. 

“Look, Parker,” Hardison said, “The second that heart leaves the hospital we have two hours, give or take, to get it from Maryland to Oregon. There is no plane that could make that trip!”

“There’s one that could…” Eliot piped up from his place behind the counter, making dinner for the three of them. 

Parker and Hardison turned to him, Hardison exasperated, Parker amused. “Now that’s more like it!” She said, “Go on.” 

Eliot continued slicing vegetables, “The SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest plane ever made, with a top speed of 2,200 mph. It could make the trip in 2 hours.”

Hardison sighed dramatically, “Of course you’d bring up a spy plane,” he said, “However, you’re forgetting that the plane was retired in 1999. All the ones that are left are just on display.” 

“Mm-hmm,” Eliot said, “There are even a few on display in North Virginia, right near the hospital.” 

“Oh really,” Hardison said, crossing his arms and using his best skeptical face, “Where in Virginia?”

Eliot dumped the sliced vegetables into a pot. “Langley.”

Hardison gave a choked laughter. “Langley, Virginia? You want us to steal a spy plane from CIA Headquarters?!”

Parker, however, was smiling, “Of course! Hardison, you hack into the CIA’s database every other weekend. And Eliot probably has tons of contacts that can get us in.”

Eliot nodded, stirring the pot absentmindedly. “I can get us in, yeah.” 

Parker nodded as if the discussion was finished. “Perfect. When should we go?”

“This weekend,” Eliot said, surprising the other two with his certainty, “It’s just…we have to do it this weekend.”

Parker nodded, “Alright, we’ll go this weekend. Lets steal a plane! Again…”

Eliot let the pot of vegetables to simmer for a bit, taking out his phone, “Hey,” He said when the person on the other line answered, “So, my schedule cleared up, and it turns out I will be able to come for family day this year after all, if its not too late.” Hardison and Parker gave each other confused looks as they listened to his half of the conversation, “Mmhmm…yeah…actually I’ll be bringing a couple of people. Yeah. I look forward to it to. Okay, I’ll see you then. Thanks, Mom.”

Eliot hung up and looked at Hardison and Parker’s surprised faces. “What?”

 

The very first thing Parker said upon meeting Mrs. Spencer was, “Do you have baby pictures of Eliot?”

Eliot glared at her, “Parker, no.”

Mrs. Spencer, however, found it amusing. “Oh definitely. They’re on my phone, we can go over them later.”

Eliot rolled his eyes and got into the front seat of her red mini-cooper. Hardison smirked at his pain, “Do you mind if we put our suitcases in the trunk, Mrs. Spencer?” He asked. 

“Sure thing,” she said, “Just leave them in there while we’re at HQ.” 

She got in the drivers seat, Hardison and Parker scrunched in the back. “Mrs. Spencer, are you a spy?” she asked. 

“Parker!” Eliot chastised.

Mrs. Spencer again chuckled, “Well, if I told you that, I’d have to kill you!” She said. Parker didn’t seem overly concerned. “No, I’m a data analyst. I go over information.” 

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Hardison said, “I was decently sure Eliot grew up in the middle of nowhere,”

“A small town is not the middle of nowhere,” Eliot said.

“Agree to disagree,” Hardison said. 

Mrs. Spencer smiled at them all, “Actually, it was Eliot who inspired me to leave my home town. He went off to the military, which was always my dream, but no one was willing to support a girl in the forces back then. So, after he left, I decided to go back to school, and I was recruited out of college and moved here.”

Eliot listened to his mom’s story, despite having heard it and lived it before. “Mom stood up for me when I wanted to join up, even though my Dad didn’t want me to. I couldn’t have made it without her.”

“Oh stop,” Mrs. Spencer said, still smiling. 

Parker was smiling too, “Eliot, your mom is so cool.”

Eliot nodded, “She’s pretty great.”

Mrs. Spencer smiled warmly at her son, “It’s easier when you have great kids.” 

 

They drove for a good 45 minutes, listening to Mrs. Spencer tell stories about Eliot and his sister as children. Finally, as they passed over a parkway with a stunning view of the water, they came up to a sign entitled ‘George Bush Center of Intelligence’

“Oh my god,” Hardison said, leaning out of the window and grabbing his phone at lightening speed, “I have to get a picture of that.” 

There was a line of cars in front of the security gates. Mrs. Spencer sighed, “Oh, this is going to be hell in the parking lot.”

When they made it to the gate, Mrs. Spencer showed her work I.D., while the other three gave fake drivers licenses made by Hardison. It was weird having fake I.D.’s with their actual names, but Eliot, at least, couldn’t fake an identity this time around, so it made sense just to give names for Parker and Hardison as well.

As Mrs. Spencer drove them down the road to the parking lot. Parker tapped Hardison’s shoulder and pointed out the window. He let out a low whistle at the sight of the plane, propped up as though it was about to take off. “Oh, looking at the Blackbird, are you?” she said, “Still the fastest plane out there. It could take a picture of a car from 80,000 feet so clear you could read the license plate.”

“Damn,” Hardison said, already falling in love with the technology. 

As he was leaning over, Parker whispered to him, “We have a few hours before we need to head out. We’ll have to stall for time.”

Hardison nodded, “I think we’ll find something to do.” 

 

Most of the exhibits around were for children brought in, a fact that did not deter Parker in the least. 

As was per usual, Parker jumped from booth to booth, absorbing all the free chotchkies and activity books the various departments handed out, with Hardison and Eliot (and now Mrs. Spencer) trailing behind her. 

She had them all dress up as spies to get secret agent badges. “Look, Hardison!” She said, bouncing up and down, “I’m a secret agent.”

“Operative,” Mrs. Spencer corrected before getting distracted by a coworker

“Parker,” he said in a low voice, “I can get you a CIA badge any time you want,”

Parker drooped slightly, “But this one has stickers on it.” 

Parker also eagerly got a lie detection test, saying “I have never done anything illegal in my life,” and passing with flying colors, a fact which sort of scared Eliot and Hardison. 

Her favorite part, of course, was seeing the bomb sniffer dogs, all happy to be off duty and get doted upon by all the children. They would occasionally do demonstrations, and as they watched, Parker turned to Eliot and Hardison. “Guys, we need to get a dog.”

“No,” Hardison and Parker said at the same time.

Parker pouted, “C’mon, we can train ‘em to go get keys and stuff for us like in cartoons.”

“Parker,” Eliot said in his best disapproving voice. Parker pouted more. 

Hardison and Mrs. Spencer bonded over their love of the technology on display not open to the public. “Man,” He said, playing with 3-D projected images, “I want to play video games with this kind of stuff.”

“I’ve tried to convince them to hook up some Tomb Raider or Legend of Zelda in here, but they won’t listen to me,” Mrs. Spencer sighed. 

Hardison lit up, “You like video games?” Mrs. Spencer nodded eagerly, “Oh you have to add me on steam, we could play each other!”

Mrs. Spencer sighed again, “I’ll tell you what I tell my daughter: The moment I get a steam account is the moment I never sleep again. 

Hardison chuckled and turned to Eliot, “Hey, how'd you come from such tech savy roots and you laugh at my nerdiness?”

Eliot shrugs, “My mom makes it cool.”

Mrs. Spencer gives Hardison a snarky wink. 

Hardison also loved the spy museum, getting fascinated even by all the WW2 technology. “Damn! That’s an original enigma machine!” He said, in awe of the device. “That’s…that’s old school, that’s a classic.”

“Oh, I love that,” Mrs. Spencer said, “Did you know…” Mrs. Spencer and Hardison fell into talking about trivia of the old machine as Eliot pulled Parker to the side. 

“Put it back,” He told her.

She frowned, innocently, “Put what back?” 

“Whatever it is you took. This is a museum, its part of history, it’s not for you to steal.”

Parker heaved a deep sigh, retreating back through the museum, Eliot behind her to make sure she followed through, “I finally had a reason to carry a tube of lipstick! These world war 2 guys put cameras in everything.”

Eliot, of course was interested in only one thing. “Barbecue sauce?” Hardison and Parker asked. 

“It has a secret ingredient,” Eliot said, holding up the bottle, “I have spent years trying to figure it out…”

Mrs. Spencer took the bottle from him. “Here, let me.”

“Mom, you don’t have to do that,” Eliot said, trying to get it back. 

He could fight off a room full of assassins and trained armed guards, but in the face of a middle-aged woman with a credit card he was rendered useless. “Oh, hush,” She said, “Just make something for me, and it’ll be fine.”

Eliot sighed as she paid for it and handed it to him. “Well then,” she said, “Why don’t we go sit and get some coffee, hm? I could use a break.” 

Apparently, CIA HQ had a starbucks. They really were everywhere. 

“One coffee and a cup of ice, please,” Mrs. Spencer asked the barista. 

“Mom, why don’t you just order an iced coffee?”

Mrs. Spencer rolled her eyes at him, “The taste is completely different, Eliot. It’s very distinctive.”

Hardison and Parker turned to one another, trying not to laugh at the phrase used. 

Unfortunately, the coffee break was cut short. Parker tapped on her watch and Hardison and Eliot nodded, as they all looked over the barbecue set up for the families. “I need to go use the restroom,” Hardison said, heading toward the signs. 

“I wanna go get one of those balloon animals,” Parker said, jumping up.

Mrs. Spencer blinked in surprise as they both left. “Hurry back,” She called after them. 

Mother and son were left alone at the table, each sipping their coffee. Mrs. Spencer smiled at the children playing out on the lawn. “I wish you could have come last year. Your sister and her family had so much fun.”

Eliot swallowed awkwardly, “I’ve…been busy with work.”

“Oh, I don’t mean to guilt you, sweetie,” Mrs. Spencer said, “Don’t I know how busy life can suddenly be? I just miss you, is all.”

Eliot smiled, “I missed you too, Mama.” He used the affectionate nickname he had reserved primarily for his childhood. 

She smiled back at him, covering his hand with hers. “I like your friends. They seem like good people.”

“They are,” he confirmed, “They’ve…really helped me, these past few years.”

“Good,” She said, “I know you were in a dark place for a while.”

Eliot looked down awkwardly again, not willing to admit to his mother exactly how dark it had been. “You…You’ve helped too,” Eliot said. His mother raised an eyebrow questioningly, “Ever since I was a kid, you always saw something good in me, you encouraged me to keep going even when everyone else doubted me. I dismissed it for just motherly bias, but…it helped me. It helped me to eventually accept the idea that I could do good things.”

She squeezed his hand tighter, the corners of her eyes welling up, “Dammit, kiddo, now you’ve got me crying.”

He held her hand in return, “Mama, don’t cry,” despite the fact he was welling up slightly himself. 

They held each other’s hands as Mrs. Spencer tried to stifle her tears in the middle of the crowded cafeteria. 

 

Meanwhile, Hardison stood at the edge of the parking lot, looking over a sea of expensive looking cars. Many were armored cars, put on display to show how heavy-duty they were, but many others were just fancy cars some of the richer employees brought out to show off. “Parker, are you in position?” He said in the fancy earpieces. 

“Hold up,” Parker panted, out of breath, “Man, this parking lot is just too god damn huge.”

“Let me know when you’re ready, I don’t want to be out here any longer than necessary.” Hardison said. 

“Hey!” Hardison looked up to see a fully grown man yelling at a child, “Get your hands off that car, this is a custom paint job.” 

The child flinched from the words, “But it looks just like my toy car…”

“Well it’s not a toy!” The man snarled, “Go back and find your mommy.” 

The child sniffled and ran off. The man wiped the hand prints off with a rag. 

“Okay,” Parker said over the comms, still out of breath, “I’m in position.”

Hardison smirked, “And what do you know? I just got a volunteer to try out my program on first.” Hardison tapped onto his device, connecting to all the cars in the area. He scrolled through until he found the man’s sports car. “All too easy,” He said, tapping a few controls. 

Immediately the car’s alarm system went off, honking and blaring and scaring the man practically out of his skin. He reached into his pocket for the keys, but no amount of jamming the button would turn the alarm off. 

Another car alarm went off, finally attracting some of the security in the area to see if it wasn’t just an accident. 

Hardison was a conductor, and the lot full of cars was his symphony. He kept turning on alarms, alerting everyone in the area, and sending in some security to investigate. 

Then, the cars started moving. “Hey, HEY!” The obnoxious man said as his car went forward, over the curb and grass, scraping against a tree, “Hey! What’s going on!” 

As more cars started moving, security flooded in, trying to stop the cars before they hurt someone (not that they would, Hardison wouldn’t allow that) and gathering the attention of everyone nearby. Hardison himself slipped back into the building, so as to not gain any attention for himself. “Alright, Parker,” Hardison said, “You should be clear soon.” 

Parker watched the security guards around her flock to the commotion to try and help, while all the family guests left to see what was going on. Calmly, she approached the SR-71 Blackbird, sitting in the middle of the lawn. “Alright, Mr. Plane,” she said, taking out a laser saw that Hardison had made special for her, “Lets getcha down from there.”

 

Inside the cafeteria, the hubbub had gone unnoticed, allowing Eliot and his mother to chat quietly. “I’ve missed having you around too, mom,” Eliot said, “I just…I get worried sometimes, you know? Especially with sis, I know she’s mad at me for leaving as much as Dad was.”

“Oh, your sister’s changed too.” Mrs. Spencer said, “She…she might have blamed me too…for leaving our home town…honestly, I sometimes worried you’d blame me.”

Eliot shook his head, “No way! You did…Mom you did everything perfectly. I’m so proud of everything you’ve done. Both for me, and for yourself.”

“Oh, honey,” She said, “I’m far from perfect.”

“Not by much.” Eliot said. She snorted. “You know…Parker and Hardison…they’re both orphans.”

“Oh dear…” Mrs. Spencer said, “that’s awful.”

“They’ve managed,” Eliot said, “And they’ve both done really well for themselves. But it, uh…it made me realize exactly how lucky I was, that I got to grow up the way I did. I thought it was common to have great parents who loved you, but from what I’ve seen it’s rarer than I would have expected.”

“Aw, well,” She said, “Its like I said, it’s easy to be a great parent when—“

“When you have great kids, I know,” Eliot finished for her, “But…it’s more than that. There are a lot of great, wonderful people out there with awful parents. And you…you taught me so much. I just…I wanted to say thank you.”

“Oh kiddo,” Mrs. Spencer held Eliot’s face, smiling at him like he was 5 years old. “You know I’ll always be there for you, I’ll always care for you.”

Eliot nodded, “I know.” 

 

“No, no, no, NO, NO, NO!” Obnoxious man chanted, his hands on his head as one of the armored vehicles bee-lined for his car, “Somebody stop it!” He cried out. 

“Hey Hardison,” Parker said over the comms,

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to need a very loud noise soon.”

Hardison backed both the armored car and the sports car from each other, and the obnoxious man sighed a breath of release, “Give me a time,”

“In 3…” Hardison started both cars again. “2…” The man screamed, “1…”

The two cars collided in a huge bang. Only a couple of people turned back to the lawn, but no one went to investigate.

On the lawn, Parker rolled out from underneath where she had cut the plane free, letting it sit on its wheels on the ground. She sighed, happy, then grabbed the heavy suitcase and lugged it up onto the plane. 

Unzipping it, she pulled out the spout attached to the trash bag they had put inside, and started pouring fuel into the plane, just where the specs they had uncovered told her to do so. 

Once the suitcase full of fuel (which had been the hardest part to obtain for their preparations) was emptied of every last drop, she threw it off the side. “Well,” She said, “It’d need a lot more fuel than that normally, but it should be good for a quick flight.” 

“One good thing about that old tech is its easy to control its navigation device,” Hardison said over his comm, “Just wire in the device I gave you, it should give you your flight plan.”

Parker did so as she loaded herself into the cockpit. “Got it.”

“Alright. I cleared air traffic for you already. Have a good flight.”

“See you in a few hours,” Parker said, as the cockpit closed around her and the plane began to move. 

 

Inside the cafeteria, the confusion had finally reached them. Mrs. Spencer looked around confused as people ran to get outside, “What’s going on?”

“It’s probably nothing,” Eliot reassured her. 

It did the exact opposite. She jumped out of her seat and started running for the door. Eliot sighed, following her as un-suspiciously as he could manage. 

They made it out just in time to see the Blackbird fly over their heads and take off.

Mrs. Spencer gaped at the plane. Eliot tried to mimic her reaction as best as he could. “Whoa,” He said, “I didn’t know they were having an air show at family day.”

Mrs. Spencer turned to him, her look of shock replaced with one of disbelief…and irritation. 

Eliot swallowed, guilty. “What?”

 

“You know,” Mrs. Spencer said, pacing back and forth, Eliot and Hardison sitting on the trunk of her car, “most kids steal their parent’s car to go joy-riding. Not a SPY PLANE.”

“It wasn’t to go joy riding…” Eliot mumbled. Mrs. Spencer glared him down. 

“I can’t believe you did all of that damage!” She said, “You know they must have caught you on 6 thousand cameras.”

“I took care of that,” Hardison said.

Mrs. Spencer huffed. “I should have known. You had the attitude of doing a job all over your face. Its very distinctive.”

Eliot blinked at her, “You…you know about my job?”

“Eliot…” She said as though explaining to a child, “I’m a CIA DATA analyst. You honestly think I can’t recognize my own son in all the reports I’ve analyzed over the years?”

Eliot’s entire worldview changed. “You…you never said anything…”

“Of course I didn’t.” She said, “It was clear you wanted to keep your life a secret, and as much as it hurt, there wasn’t anything I could do, except make it clear that you could always come to me, with ANYTHING.” 

Eliot didn’t know what to say, so he stared up at his mother in gratefulness and even more pride than he thought possible. 

“So…” Hardison said, “Are you going to turn us in?”

Mrs. Spencer sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “Well, its not like I have any proof. I doubt my superiors would accept a mother’s intuition.” Hardison smiled at her. “As long as Parker returns the plane when she’s done.”

“She will,” Eliot said, “We promise.”

“In that case,” she said, “Lets…lets go home. Before they trap us in here for an investigation all night.”

Eliot got up, going to hug her, “Thanks, mom.”

“Oh, don’t think you’ve gotten out of all this scot-free,” She said, “#1 on my to-do list when we get home is to post your entire baby album to facebook.”

Hardison couldn’t hold in his snicker, earning his own glare from Eliot’s mom. “As for you and Ms. Parker,” She said, “You all have no choice but to come down to my house for Christmas dinner this year. Eliot’s sister will be there with her family, it’s only right my son do the same for once.”

Eliot and Hardison nodded, “Yes ma’am.” They both said. 

They loaded up in the car and left.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think! My tumblr is dork-empress


End file.
